George Simmonds played four games for Melbourne in 1924, his only VFL season, debuting at age 29. The AFL had him as being born 16 July 1895 on the Historical Stats website and presumably this is still regarded as his official DOB.
He was George L. 'Nugget' Simmonds and "from Kerang" according to The Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers. He is credited with being just the second aboriginal footballer to play in the VFL, with only Joe Johnson in front of him.
http://afltables.com/afl/stats/players/G/George_Simmonds.html
The mystery involves his age, and did the same player play with Richmond Seconds (1925-27) and later at Northcote in the VFA (1930-38). The indications are very strong that it is the same player, but if so he would have been an unlikely 43 by the end of his VFA career, if the official DOB is correct.
I started looking into this after seeing his name here:- http://boylesfootballphotos.net.au/Northcote Senior Team 1933 (SLV 122_059) and noticing there could be a serious discrepancy regarding his age. The player in the photo may well be indigenous (or even of African heritage), and while I haven't found anything that says the 1924 Melbourne player George Simmonds was the same one who ended up at Richmond Seconds a year later, the odds against there being two aboriginal (?) goal-kicking forwards with the same name playing at about the same time are extremely high!
He was George L. 'Nugget' Simmonds and "from Kerang" according to The Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers. He is credited with being just the second aboriginal footballer to play in the VFL, with only Joe Johnson in front of him.
http://afltables.com/afl/stats/players/G/George_Simmonds.html
The mystery involves his age, and did the same player play with Richmond Seconds (1925-27) and later at Northcote in the VFA (1930-38). The indications are very strong that it is the same player, but if so he would have been an unlikely 43 by the end of his VFA career, if the official DOB is correct.
I started looking into this after seeing his name here:- http://boylesfootballphotos.net.au/Northcote Senior Team 1933 (SLV 122_059) and noticing there could be a serious discrepancy regarding his age. The player in the photo may well be indigenous (or even of African heritage), and while I haven't found anything that says the 1924 Melbourne player George Simmonds was the same one who ended up at Richmond Seconds a year later, the odds against there being two aboriginal (?) goal-kicking forwards with the same name playing at about the same time are extremely high!
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